


the Feeling of Drowning

by say_no_to_hugs



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: M/M, Multi, Nonbinary Character, Polyamory, Stockholm Syndrome, Titan-Haired Eren Yeager, merman eren
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-05
Updated: 2015-01-05
Packaged: 2018-03-05 09:55:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3115745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/say_no_to_hugs/pseuds/say_no_to_hugs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren was a merman so naturally he was accustomed to the different feelings of water. When he was captured by a group of scientists called the Survey Corps he finally realized how it felt to be a fish out of water. When he realized he was falling for two of his captors he finally got to experience the feeling of drowning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the Feeling of Drowning

  
The darkness surrounding him is what made Eren realize there was something wrong. This darkness was nothing like the night sky or even the deep waters that he was used to. No, this darkness was unnatural. Eren frantically looked around, eyes failing to pick up any details of his surroundings. Eren swam back and winced as he bumped into something hard. Eren skimmed his fingers along the smooth perimeter. He concluded that he was trapped in an enclosure that was most likely made of glass. He doubted there was anything in there that could help him escape.

 

Eren cautiously taped the glass twice; it didn't feel too thick, if he rammed into it hard enough he could probably shatter it. Eren backed up to the other end of the cage and took a deep breath. Eren summoned all his strength and then slammed his body into the glass. A loud bang rang through his surroundings and Eren winced. He would have to be a fool to believe his captors hadn't heard that. Panicking, he swam back to the end of the enclosure. Once again, he rammed into the glad, but for all his efforts he didn't even produce a scratch on the smooth surface.

 

Eren looked up and glided through the water to the top of the cage. He quickly realized that there was no top, but his happiness was short lived. He felt only air around the sides of his glass cage. Even if he somehow managed to haul himself out the water, he would dry out before he even dragged himself thirty feet.

 

Eren's head snapped up at the sound of voices approaching. There was no alternative escape route. He had to at least try to free himself. Eren was prepared to fight if need be.

 

Suddenly light flooded the room and Eren glanced around surveying his surroundings. There were three people walking into the room, all humans. Two of them were short. One had fluffy blond hair pulled into a loose ponytail with hair falling into their sky blue eyes, and the other one had strange ink black hair and even stranger grey eyes. The last one was a tall brunette whose greasy hair was pulled into a messy bun. The tallest one grinned at Eren practically salivating as if he was a fresh meal. Eren had no doubt about being able to take down the creepy human and the blond, but the one with strange eyes looked like it might put up a fight.

 

Eren tensed up ready to spring as soon as the humans ventured near him. Once the three humans were near his cage, Eren attacked with the ferocity of a great white. He targeted the tall one first. He tackled it to the ground and punched it in the face knocking it out. He swept his tail at the blond human's feet and it fell to the floor with the same amount of grace as a fish on land. He turned to the grey eyed and snarled at it. It took a step towards him and he hissed.

 

“Listen kelp-for-brains I seriously doubt you can find a way out of here before you dry out and you don’t even know if there’s water nearby, but if you’re stupid enough to believe that you can escape, go ahead and try.” The human moved out of Eren’s way, and Eren glanced at the door.

 

 

He could feel himself drying out and his lungs were screaming. Eren was often rash and impulsive, but he wasn’t an idiot. There was no guarantee that the building he was in was near water. Even if by some slim chance it was, there were probably a lot of other humans in the facility. It would be almost impossible to escape unnoticed. The human seemed to sense his distress and it walked closer to him. Eren growled at the human, and it held its hands up in surrender. “Look fish boy, I’m just trying to help your moronic ass, so you might want to calm down, unless, you want to die of asphyxiation.”

 

Eren stilled and let out a huffy breath. The human’s piercing gaze met his own glare as it slowly approached him. The human bent over and, despite its small stature, easily picked him up and carried him over to a small set of stairs that led to the top of the tank. The human carefully dropped Eren into the water. Eren swiftly swam to the bottom of the tank without looking back. He had failed and now he was stuck at the mercy of his captors.

 

♫♪♫♪♫♪

 

Eren fell into a fitful sleep full of dreams that quickly turned into disturbingly vivid nightmares. At first his dreams were only nostalgic memories of his underwater home and family. Then suddenly, he was a child again trying desperately to rescue his sister Mikasa from humans that wanted nothing more than to capture a siren. He fought the humans with a fierceness and desperation that only wild animals and those who were fighting for their lives could posses. He was killing the humans left and right but they seemed to multiply. Eren was getting weaker the more he killed. The water around Eren was becoming darker the more he killed. The deep scarlet blood formed thick ropes that bound his arms and tail. The more he struggled the deeper the ropes dug into his tender flesh. He looked desperately for Mikasa as his attackers closed in. He watched as she stared coolly at him then her face morphed into the image of his mother. She looked at him with pity as he screamed out to her, blood red tears streaming out of his eyes. Then she opened her mouth and whispered, voice like waves hitting the shore, “Don’t you see, Eren, you can’tsave me. I’m already dead.”

 

Eren woke up with a start. He looked around and noticed the small blond human staring at him, blue eyes filled with concern. Eren’s cheeks burned with embarrassment. How could he be so stupid, the human probably thought he was weak. Eren shot towards the tiny human and bared his teeth startling it. He smirked at its reaction. Then the human did something surprising, it giggled. Eren glared at the human which only seemed to amuse it further. The human got closer to the glass and breathed on it fogging up. It took its pointer finger and gently smudged it on the glass outlining a small crude drawing of a fish. Eren looked at the human quizzically; it seemed to be asking if he was hungry. He was hungry but he was not sure whether or not he could trust the small human no matter how innocent it seemed.

 

Eren stared as the tiny human climbed the stairs up to the top of the tank. Eren swam up to meet it but kept a bit of distance between them. The human, reached into a metal bucket and pulled out a fat mackerel. Eren stared suspiciously at the human’s hand and was struck with an idea. He grasped the human’s arm and instantly tugged the human into the water. He slammed the delicate human into the glass, keeping a tight grip as it flailed around trying to escape his grasp. “Why have you trapped me here human,” he spat. The human said nothing and only stared at him, its cheeks puffed up with air. “Answer me!” Eren shouted in frustration, the human only looked at him with panic in its eyes. Eren sighed; he had forgotten that land dwellers usually required more oxygen than merpeople. Eren bit his lip just enough to draw blood and softly pressed his lips to the human’s mouth. The human gasped in shock inhaling a tiny bit of water mixed with Eren’s blood. Eren chuckled softly at its bewildered face and watched in amusement as it took a tentative breath in. “Speak,” he said softly, “You’ll be able to breathe underwater for only the next few minutes. Tell me why you have trapped me here.”

 

“I didn’t trap you here, I only work for the people who do. They have never seen one of your kind and only wish to study you.” The human, who Eren assumed was a boy, spoke quietly but honestly.

 

Eren stared at the boy, “Why would the humans need to study me? Don’t they already know of my people?” Eren stared deep into the blue of the boy's eyes. The boy flushed and looked away from Eren.

"Most humans think that mermaids are made up creatures." 

Eren frowned. "Humans really are skeptical beings." Eren froze at the sound of footsteps coming towards them and he scooped up the human and swam up with the boy in his arms. He helped it climb out the tank and shushed him when he tried to speak. The footsteps moved away, and Eren sighed in relief.

The boy grinned at him and spoke, "How did you know someone was coming?" Eren looked at him in confusion; he just assumed that humans could hear stuff like that too. He shrugged at the human who smiled at him in return, "That's pretty amazing because I didn't hear a thing." Eren smiled at the human. The boy extended a hand, and Eren stared at it in confusion. "Humans usually shake hands when they meet people," the boy explained and he grabbed Eren's hand, "I'm Armin what's your name?"

Eren stared at the human, "My name is Eren," he muttered.

The human grinned, "nice to meet you Eren." Eren looked up at the humans smiling face. Armin. He hoped he could trust him. 

Armin seemed to sense Eren's fears. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about this. It will be our secret. Eren watched Armin walk down the stairs and out of the room.

Eren swam to the bottom of his tank and located the fat body of the dropped mackerel. He picked it up and inspected it's scaled body with slight suspicion. He turned the fish over and sniffed it before taking a careful bite out of it. It wasn't as fresh as he would've liked it to be, but it would have to do. Eren didn't taste anything off so he devoured the fish in a few bites.

When he had finished, Eren swam to the surface and floated on his back staring at the ceiling. Eren blinked a few times and then realized that what he was looking at was not the ceiling, but a glass covered opening to the sky. If he remembered correctly, it was called a window. Eren watched as clouds floated overhead. He could almost imagine he was back home staring at the sky in the large expanse of the ocean.

Eren sighed, a feeling of homesickness washed over him filling him with sadness. Eren's view of the sky became blurry, and he realized that he was crying.Eren's silent tears soon turned into loud and shaky sobs.

He missed his home and Mikasa and the comforting waves of the ocean. He even missed Jean, the most irritating of all his friends. He missed the colorful schools of fish that he hunted and the beautiful coral reefs that they lived in. He missed the feeling of racing his sister through open waters, and he even missed the feeling he got when he lost. 

Eren's cries got louder the more he thought about home. He felt his heart break when he came to the conclusion that he might not see his home again.

Eren's sobs were so loud that he didn't hear the oncoming footfalls of another human. He only realized the human was there because he sensed that there was someone watching him. Eren looked up to meet the cold grey eyes of the human man from the previous day. He wiped his eyes, embarrassed that the human had seen his weakness. He glared at the man, and the human glared back with twice the intensity. It's glare was unsettling. It seemed as if the human could state in to the depths of your soul. Eren felt as if all his secrets were on display. He shuddered and broke their eye contact. The human turned on its heel and left the room leaving Eren to wonder why he had been there in the first place.


End file.
